"...we part with tender relations stretching far behind us, that never can be exactly renewed..."
My mouth is watering. Sounds like you are getting the weather we just had here in Mass. Lovely post, as usual.
Hi Scot,
You wrote this one sort of like a bell curve inverted, but the mood was never down more introspective and disillusioned. To say I am delighted that you've found the way to make your own optimism would be the epitome of Liz understatment. Don't you think? But I have to admit a sentence that has the words 30 degrees and heaven in quite that juxtaposition seems an oxymoron to me. I'm cold for you already and you won't be there for at least three hours yet as I figure it.
Part of the way I keep my optimism is to delegate the worry over the very big things, such as nuclear war. I know that others are better at it and have more practice, so I leave those kinds of worries to the experts who know how to do it well.
Heaven is inside us. I'm glad you found the key.
smiles,
Liz
Worry must be the cheapest commodity in the universe, the way we waste huge amounts of it every day. I'm glad you found a way to get rid of yours. 
Beautiful essay, as ever, Scot. Dang, you can write!
I love the way you weave Poe's gloom into your piece, and then haul us toward the light. You're so right. Though we may find ourselves drawn to the House of Usher, we don't have to live there.
S. L. Cunningham,
An excellent post from your domestic perspective to a universal narrative.
You are a genius.
Scot, you always deliver the goods. There's a gentleness in you language, which hold our hands as you lead us. The storm and your mood with the candles leads so perfectly to Poe. The message is always balanced, as it was here. Liz was right this had an inverted bell curve shape. Beautiful.
rdl:
Thanks for stopping by. I think you may have gotten more rain out of this last storm than we did. Glad you enjoyed . . .
Scot
Liz:
Your visits are always welcomed and I especially appreciate your insightful comments. I love the image of the inverted bell curve. I hadn't quite thought of the structure of this essay in quite that way, but it fits.
I hope, though, you are not finding fault with me for the oxymoron. It was, afterall, a hot doughnut, and there within lies the paradox. Thank you so much for reading and sharing.
Scot
Clive:
Your compliment is appreciated. I enjoy the contemplative quality of your writing and feel in good company when you check in.
Scot
Patry:
Thank you for that. Your comments help me gauge whether I have succeeded with tying together some of the larger elements of the work.
Scot
OSINACHI
Thank for stopping by. Your compliment is appreciated.
Scot
Garnet:
Good to see you here. I appreciate that you take the time to write such reflective responses. I especially like how you find the internal connections that have the most meaning for you, and so generously share them. Thank you,
Scot
No Scot, no fault found. If any thing maybe what I was expressing (inadequately) was a little longing. The image of you with that hot doughnut in 30 degree weather is so romantic it does call up a kind of heaven . . . but damn if that evil self-preserver in my brain didn't leave it at that. NO, it had to tell you that I would be cold and even worse it had to do it cryptically and say "it seems an oxymoron to me." Which of course you would hear as me speaking of the literary device rather than a reference to my own discomfort with the cold. (If you recall what I wrote about the changing of the seasons this might make sense to you.) I'm sorry. I'll give my self-preserving side a good talking to. 
Scot, I find your writing so uplifting and so human. I can't imagine finding anything about it I would criticize.
Thanking you for your writing. You don't know how many times it has given me just what I needed at just the right moment.
Liz
Liz:
“. . .what I was expressing . . . was a little longing.” Now that’s a deeper aspect of meaning I wasn’t aware of when I wrote the last sentence to my essay, but you’re so right, because in essence, it recapitulates what this essay is really about, doesn’t it? And so I thank you for your clarification.
No offense taken, I was just curious as to the confusion, which now seems was never confusion to begin with. What you did was simply put your finger on a very real human emotion, and related how it felt to you. I thank you for that, and for your kind compliments of my work.
Scot
Scot, I get as much satisfaction out of reading your posts as I would if I had just finished a great novel (which I never have time for). They are clever, witty, and terribly satisfying.
You do make a good "pick-me-up".
Joe:
Good to see you here. Appreciate your compliment. I'll have to come by your way and stop in for a visit.
Scot
I suppose Scot if you were less a writer and not so good at describing heaven. Big Chesire Cat Grin.
Scot
Amazing. I echo what everyone else has said. You've been given a gift and a voice. Thanks for sharing them with us.
I've been thinking a lot about Winston Smith and Big Brother these days, too. It seems the world is conspiring to make us believe that two plus two is five.
Nancy and I got back from Glorietta, NMex last night with for our five requests for proposals, sample chapters, and marketing plans plans for our "books" and were wondering how we were going maintain the call the create. Upon reading your essay this morning I saw that it won't be difficult. Having companions like you, Liz, Clive is like having friends sitting with us, urging us on through the beauty of their writing.
While we were in Glorietta I shared with Nancy that I believe that I needed kindred spirits after all the dormant years (30 years since graduating from college). For me this is like having creative consultants searching my house for the stories and the language I want to convey them in. The stuff that's been hidden away is being found. Reading the words and stories of friends like you is, I think, a way of hearing them say, "Here they are, Phil. I found them in a hall closet."
Thanks!
Phil:
You're welcome, and I thank you for that. Good to hear your trip went well. I like the analogy of "creative consultants searching my house. . ."
When I first started my blog, I never imagined that I would find such wonderful friends as I have in you, Liz, Clive and many others. And as "kindred spirits," I think we do inspire each other to put forth our very best. To create is one thing, but to be inspired to create is an entirely different thing.
Scot
Excellent!
We've been through many a storm here as well, and life without electricity IS very different. You captured it beautifully!
I am reading all of the WBA entries, and enjoying the journey very much.
Great post- thanks for sharing!
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